Belgrade Transportation

We arranged for our hotel to send a driver for us, I much prefer that to trying to figure out where the legitimate taxis are in cities that are known for corrupt taxi drivers. They told me 15€ or 1800 dinar which I had read was the legitimate rate, our driver met us at the airport with a sign. On the way back we had the hotel arrange it again and they said that because of the early hour it would be 2200 dinar. The driver again handed us an invoice for 1800 dinar, I tried to give him the 2200 since that is what we were quoted but he handed 200 back to us

Either the tourist information office or our hotel desk told us we could purchase bus tickets on the bus so when we hopped on the bus to get back from Ada Ciganlija we tried to pay the driver and he laughed at us and then just waved us on the bus without taking the money. I wouldn't recommend that though, I read in the English language newspaper that they were starting to add inspectors on certain routes, on the test days the number of paying riders increased from 1600 to 6600!! Obviously a lot of people don't pay but I certainly wouldn't recommend that.

The tourism office suggested that we take the E2 minibus to get to Ada Ciganlija instead of the bus, you purchase the ticket from the driver and although it said 145 dinars on it, everyone was handing the driver 150 and not getting change. The driver does make change for larger bills and he let us know when to get off the minibus. It was a quick ride

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Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport wqas once one of the more importnat hubs in Europe but this role has vanished after the fall of the iron curtain and the Balkan wars. After democracy returned to Serbia, air connections did as well. Former Jugoslav flag carrier JAT is just a glimpse of its former self, but still the main player on this airport, linking the Serbian capital with many of Europe's most important cities. Wizzair has established a base there and is increasing the number of available destinations by adding typical low-cost destinations such as Luton, Dortmund or Skavsta. Other airlines serving Belgrade include Austrian, Etihad, Qatar, Turkish and Norwegian.

Bus line 72 links the airport with the terminal at Zeleni Venac market, count between 30 and 45 minutes for a trip depending on traffic. Tickets can be bought at newspaper stands for as low as 80 Dinar, tickets at the driver cost 170 dinar (as of 2011) which is still quite cheap. The A1 buses are only slightly faster, but are a little more comfortable. They cost 300 Dinar (2011) and run to Slavija Square. Tickets for that one can only be bought in the bus.

Belgrade has one of the best bus networks for medium city.
GSP Beograde has done great job.
You use the system traveler need to get one of the new blue cards which work similar like Oyster card on London underground. Once is loaded with money every ride is " pinged" and 40 dinars are taken out, now you must " ping out" like in Amsterdam trams otherwise on your next journey when you " ping" you pay additional penalty of your forgetfulness.
There is 24/7 open info lines.
from 00.00 to 24.00 every day
  теl: +381 11 366-4040
Use of a talking machine: +381 11 30-33-370, 30-33-371

Information: +381 11 366-4047

Sales: +381 11 366-4129, 366-4133, 366-4138

**THE Belgarde-Sarajevo train sop running on Dec 9th 2012 due to high cost to mentain the line
Most popular train Belgrade-Sarajevo and vica versa has been running for some years now.. Which is very convinient, as it was very dificult to connect both Capitals after the war.
Trains Sarejevo - Belgrade. Here are details...

Frequency: 1 direct, or change at Strizivojna-Vrpolje
Times: Direct train: departs 11:35, arrives 20:09; (via S-Vr) departs 0655, arrives 17:05)
Price: 33 KM

U neko moje vrijeme, kad' je bilo svega i nicega, mi smo se palili na dobre pile. Nema tog' iz moje generacije koji barem dvaput nije gledao kultni film "Easy rider". A u tom filmu Harley Davidson, kojeg je jahao Peter Fonda, bio je naš nikad dosanjani san. Ova pila me malo vratila u doba te moje mladosti, bar na trenutak.
Eh da sam nesto ludji vala bih ga kupio.

Bus is a mode to travel around the Balkans.
Belgrade Bus Station is situated on the corner of Zeleznichka & Nemanjina st in downtown Belgrade. Bus no 83 from New Belgrade stops there, also trams no 5,7,9.
All you need is to chek their website for traveling to other countries on the Balkans & within Serbia.
Address: Zeleznichka st 4, 11000 BELGRADE
Second link ( live) is international departure schedule .

the local busses are absolutely horrible..I dont think i will offend anybody by saying that but those busses would be better off at a car breaker than in the traffic..
they are full of holes, rusty and smell like somebody died in there. The positive thing about it is that the tickets are cheap only 7- 10 diners for a ride..
sometimes i see a bus and really wonder how its still driving, but sometimes they are really not .sometimes u see a "dead" bus in the roadside waiting for someone to come and remove it..

Update
tickets are now 60 dinars for one ride. So the prices have gone a lot since my last stay!

Belgrade has quite few parking garages to be used for ppl who are visiting with their cars.
Parking in a secure garage is cheap and , great value for money.
The city has long term parking garages, where you can rent spot from anything of a week to an year..
I parked few times in Graza Zeleni Vjenac as is very close to Knez Mihajlova St (the pedestrian hart of Belgrade) & Kalemegdan park

Garaža "Zeleni venac"

Address: Kraljice Natalije br. 13

Total spaces: 306

levels: P+5,5

open from: 00-24 hrs (365 days a year)

there is an lift for disabled

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We traveled with Jat Airways as it was the only direct flight from London to Belgrade. It is fair to say that the flights were quite smooth, and only just before return arrival at Heathrow did we experience turbulence.

The service was a little limited, however you do get an in flight sandwich and drinks free of charge.

The seats are loose and I found that even though I did not use the recline function it kept slipping; the tables were also very loose.

The washrooms were old fashioned and have seen better days.

If you are taking a taxi into Belgrade from the airport, there is a taxi info desk just past customs. You will be given a receipt with the name of your destination and the appropriate price – most hotels are within Zone 1 = 1,500 RSD. Your hotel will use reliable cabs, as well, and they can call one up for you and you can watch the meter roll. I took several cabs and never had any problems, but another in our group did.

For only 250 RSD you can catch a bus a-1 from the airport to Slavija Square with earlier stops at New Belgrade and the train station. You buy a ticket in the bus and they leave every twenty minutes in each direction. Of course, you need to know where you are going to go from the bus stop. The train station means a fairly big hill to climb and Trg Slavija is only good if you are staying at the Slavija Hotel.

In contrast to the trains, buses go all over Serbia and into adjacent countries. The main bus station is adjacent to the train station. Most buses go out of the main terminal though some buses to destinations that are not so far out of Belgrade use the two smaller terminals across the street to the north. Pay for your ticket in the appropriate terminal and you will also get a seat reservation – important for long bus journeys. The reservation system worked fine out from Belgrade, but not so good coming back. You will also need to buy a token that you use to gain entry onto the bus platforms themselves.

While in Serbia I took two overnight buses and two medium range buses. The overnight buses were nowhere near as comfortable as Mexican overnight buses which I have ridden and the ride between Belgrade and Kotor was longer than the time it took me to fly from the West Coast of the US to Istanbul – including two layovers en route. Traffic was the main problem, especially along the Montenegrin coast near Budva where everything is a bit of a chaotic mess. It also takes awhile to get across the Serbo-Montenegrin border, maybe the bus schedules were drawn up before the two countries split and haven’t been revised? As non-luxurious as the bus ride had been, I shudder to think what the train journey to Podgorica would have been like in lieu of the locals negative comments – “Do not take the train!”

I remember seeing cars with the “JZ” on them in the Sûdbahnhof of Wien thinking that Western Europe definitely ended there. Trains in Serbia don’t seem to have gotten much better in the intervening years. Originally, I had thought about taking the train from Istanbul to Belgrade but 48 hours on the train versus two by plane – plus the cost of for air travel wasn’t that significantly higher – swung my plans towards Turkish Air. I had heard that the train trip to Podgorica, Montenegro was very beautiful – taking ‘business class’ – but everyone in Belgrade that I talked to – including the Serbian Tourist Agency – said, “Don’t take the train! Take the bus!” They were quite emphatic about it too. In Belgrade, the train and bus stations are right next to each other. The train station is very quiet – there aren’t a lot of trains to anywhere to begin with. The bus station, in contrast, is abuzz with activity.